F1 icon Schumacher emerges from coma after skiing accident

AFP, LAUSANNE, Switzerland

Tue, Jun 17, 2014 - Page 20

Formula One champion Michael Schumacher yesterday emerged from the coma he has been in since suffering a ski accident in December last year.

The retired German driver’s spokeswoman, Sabine Kehm, said he had been transferred from a hospital in Grenoble, France, where he had been since Dec. 29 last year after slamming his head on a rock while skiing with his son and friends.

The 45-year-old was transferred to a hospital in the Swiss city of Lausanne where he will be undergoing further treatment, hospital spokesman Darcy Christen said.

Stressing the hospital’s commitment to privacy, Christen said Schumacher’s family was with him “in a space created especially to ensure their intimacy and to ensure the best possible care.”

While news of his accident in the French skiing resort of Meribel attracted throngs of global media to the Grenoble hospital, his departure yesterday morning was very discreet and no press conference was scheduled to further brief the media.

In a statement, the seven-time F1 world champion’s spokeswoman said his family wanted to “thank all his treating doctors, nurses and therapists in Grenoble, as well as the first aiders at the place of the accident, who did an excellent job in those first months.”

“For the future we ask for understanding that his further rehabilitation will take place away from the public eye,” Kehm added.

She gave no further details about Schumacher’s condition, which have been kept under a tight lid since his accident.

The F1 legend had two surgeries to remove life-threatening blood clots after the freak accident, before being plunged into a medically induced coma.